An artist's workshop is both a mental and an artistic space in which the artist's idea is carved in marble, laid down in pigments, or engraved in copper. The workshop is also a classroom in which the trade of the painter, sculptor, or cabinetmaker is passed on by example and where companions or apprentices seek to exceed the master. Finally, it is a salon where reputations are forged, sometimes echoed or even undermined by remarkable imitators or passionate amateurs. Europe itself figures throughout the centuries as a large workshop, or rather like a suite of workshops, each housing artists with specific practices and particular styles, and each creating opportunities for collaboration. Long before its emergence as a political entity, Europe was distinguished by its intense traffic in goods and people. Artists, art-lovers, and rich patrons made arduous journeys not only by road but also by river to far-flung locales as they sought to satisfy their appetite for beauty. This is the world of The Great Workshop, in which the editors develop a number of themes analyzing the circulation of art and the artistic community over a substantial geographic area ranging from Dublin to Palermo, from Cordoba to Stockholm, Rouen to Sofia. Short, focused essays treating the peregrinations of those conducting the business of art are crucial to our understanding of the migration of themes and formal motifs. With its remarkable and often spectacular selections, The Great Workshop illustrates the complex web of European artistic exchange and production. The book contains 250 full-color examples from well over one hundred European collections and essays from distinguished art historians who elucidate a long stretch of art history from the fall of the Roman Empire to the birth of the first great museums of Europe.

Museum Treasures of Southeast Asia tells the story of the material cultures of this region through historical artifacts from the permanent collections of the national museums of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, the ten countries which make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Through historical objects created in stone, metal, clay, and fiber, this book traces the history of Southeast Asia back to the origins of man in the region, through the area's stone and metal ages, through the rise and fall of powerful kingdoms, and dynasties, to the evolution and birth of independent nation states, and the eventual formation of ASEAN. Diverse as Southeast Asia is ethnically, culturally, climatically, religiously and politically many common traits exist throughout the region, arising out of the shared histories of the many parts, the commerce between them, and the rise and fall of regional civilizations, empires, kingdoms, and polities. These commonalities shared by the countries and the people of the region form the basis of ties that have spanned centuries and which still exist today. Museum Treasures of Southeast Asia investigates these common roots of the Southeast Asian identity to its origins and early influences through the evolution of local, indigenous cultures. This publication presents a uniquely Southeast Asian perspective on the cultural history of the region. It is an endeavor that has brought together the efforts of various people across Southeast Asia. It captures the bonds of kinship found across this vast and varied region and also reflects the spirit of unity that the ASEAN as a group embodies while demonstrating the strong cultural ties that unify the countries of Southeast Asia.